I’m a lazy blogger, I admit it. But a lazy blogger makes for an industrious knitter. If I blogged all the time, I wouldn’t get any knitting done, now, would I?

Just last night, I started a bulky winter sweater for myself. No pattern, just winging it, starting with the bottom hem on US13 circulars and working my way up.

Baby Alpaca Grande - oh, soooooo soft!

The yarn is absolutely scrumptious!! Plymouth Yarn Baby Alpaca Grande,so soft it just makes you sigh when you touch it. I picked it up at Kitschy Stitch while I was vacationing in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware this past weekend. Love that shop; their selection of yarns is phenomenal! The owner, Allison, is the sweetest person in the world and is so helpful when it comes to picking yarn or answering questions about knitting.

While I was there, a little girl around 10 years of age came into the shop all by herself, clutching a well-worn, torn paper bag. In it was her knitting project – a beautifully-knit body of a sweater which she proudly showed everyone. It looked like she was ready to work on the seaming and/or the arms and had come in for assistance from her knitting mentor. She waited patiently, alternately knitting by the fireplace and talking politely to customers about their yarn choices and knitting projects, while Allison rang up purchases and wound yarn into balls. I don’t know who that little girl was, but her quiet concentration and fascination with everything knitting makes me suspect I may have met one of the future’s most preeminent knitting fashion designers.

Our lesson for today? I guess the title gave it away: Teach a kid to knit. All kids who knit may not be whizzes at it, or end up in garment design. But the process of knitting teaches concentration, attention to detail, manual dexterity, patience, and probably all kinds of other stuff I couldn’t begin to name since I’m not an early childhood educator or even a mom. Knitting is good stuff…pass it along.

My Aunt Mim taught me to knit when I was somewhere around the age of 8. When did you learn to knit?